1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of medical process control and in particular concerns a method, a system and a product for administration of variable configuration files in a medical facility.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of apparatuses that are designed for execution of examinations, measurements and/or for acquisition of image data, etc. are normally provided in a medical facility such as, for example, in a hospital or a special clinic. These apparatuses are normally connected to a network and thus are involved in data exchange. Moreover, there are a number of processes that are designed for execution of workflows or for execution of other medical procedures.
It is common to medical-technical apparatuses as well as to the medical-technical processes that they must be defined, specified and executed in a specific form and thus are fixed. For each apparatus and/or for each process there are thus metadata that are necessary for execution of the respective process or for startup of the respective apparatus. The metadata are data that can be relevant in connection with the apparatus and/or with the respective process, for example specification of the measurement procedures that must be implemented for acquisition of specific image data or specific settings that must be effected on the apparatus, etc. The metadata are typically stored in standardized protocols. Depending on the modality (MR, CT, PET, etc.) there are different configuration files or, respectively, different measurement protocols that must be changed from time to time in the event that, for example, a modification of an already-existing configuration file is required based on a long-term study conducted by the hospital or clinic.
The respective configuration files could previously be only locally administered and modified and only manually forwarded to other apparatuses and/or units in the clinical facility. This previous procedure is deficient since significant errors could arise by a valid configuration file being overwritten by an unauthorized change so that the previous data of the configuration file are then no longer available.
Previously only local and manual changes to the respective configuration file could be effected without the configuration files having been centrally administered. A configuration file, for example a specific measurement protocol, thus could be altered by a physician at one point in time without his or her colleagues having been automatically informed about this. The colleagues then unknowingly use the changed protocol at a later point in time although it is unsuitable for this application case and possibly results in false or incorrect measurements. Changing a configuration file was previously disadvantageously an unregulated and unstructured procedure, such that changes normally remain untrackable and non-transparent.